The Spirit

It's Pentecost Monday - a bank holiday here in France.

I liked Richard Rohr's Pentecost meditation posted yesterday.

here it is:

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After He said this, He showed them His hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. And He said to them again, “Peace be with you!”

~ John 20:19-21

We still wait behind closed doors; fifty days (“Pente-cost”), fifty years, five hundred years, we are always waiting and hoping, but not really expecting. It is the day we are always waiting for but never prepared for, the day of the great outpouring of fire-laden love, the day that ties all other days together. Pentecost is actually every day, if we expect it; but, not surprisingly, this is the greatest forgotten major festival of the entire church year.  Most come to church expecting no new outpouring, or maybe not even remembering an old one.

Yet it is Pentecost, the day of the great gathering in and the great sending out. The Holy Spirit must get tired of waiting for us, always hiding behind our closed doors.

Richard speaks of 'the great outpouring of fire-laden love' - 'fire-laden love' is an image of a burning passion of love which is a similar metaphore used by Bruce Cockburn in his song 'Lord of the Starfields' when he sings 'Oh Lord who fires the sun keep me burning'.

My prayer is that the Lord of all creation may keep me burning with a passion for Him, a passion for life, for my immediate and not so immediate family, for humanity and for His creation.

May the fire of the Spirit keep us burning!